A forthcoming book claims that former President Joe Biden’s aides considered having him take a cognitive test during his reelection campaign, the New York Times reports.
Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf make the claim in their book 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, which is set for publication by Penguin Press this summer. The publisher describes the book as “the shocking inside story of one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, the results of which will test American democracy and shape the future of the free world.”
Biden was 81 and in the thick of his reelection campaign when his aides considered asking him to take a cognitive test, which they believed would prove his fitness for office. The politician had a long history of verbal gaffes and apparent memory lapses, which became fodder for his Republican opponents as well as late-night talk show hosts.
The aides eventually decided against the cognitive test idea, believing that it would renew attention to concerns about his age and mental sharpness.
About four months after the conversations, Biden debated his Republican opponent, Donald Trump, in Atlanta. Biden’s performance was widely seen as disastrous, and weeks later, he withdrew from the presidential race, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination. Harris went on to lose the presidential election to Trump.
2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America is slated for publication on July 8.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
